Clément Renaud

How would you explain autism to a child?


Originally Answered: How do you explain autism to a child?To explain your son autism, ask him why he thinks the other child is violent sometimes. He may look closer next time and start to understand (and be safer then).

Tell him that people aren ‘t all the same and that ‘s the child violent behavior is just a reaction to some things he dislikes. People behavior is not automatic just like a machine but is an interaction, an exchange. Autistic people may have different way to sense and feel things so your son has to be careful when he interacts with him. What it takes is an attempt to understand him.

For instance, many autistic children dislike big noises and too much agitation around them but your son can have calm activities with him. I think it is very good to understand as a child that people have different ways to show emotions and that therefore you should use different ways to talk to them / be with them.

Don ‘t go tell him “something is wrong with this child ‘s brain “ because this is nonsense and it won ‘t help your son to understand anything. Instead of this, what about some empathy? It is a wonderful quality and it should be cultivated all the time.

Autistic people can show so much love and sometimes reveal to us entire parts of life that we are completely missing, being so desperately “normal “. Maybe their behavior is mysterious and scary but it shouldn ‘t be introduced to a child as “abnormal “ and “problematic “.

What children should be taught is to challenge themselves to love others, because this is a true value for the rest of their life. People can get so different, but you can ‘t just ignore them. At the end of the day, you have to live with others and that is all that matters.

This text was originally published in quora.